


and i will love you like a bird that cannot fly (you will be fine)

by hybridempress



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Cat/Human Hybrids, Domestic Fluff, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, M/M, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-30
Updated: 2017-06-30
Packaged: 2018-11-21 14:14:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11359152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hybridempress/pseuds/hybridempress
Summary: Caught outside in the pouring rain, Otabek finds a small, dirty cat by the stairs outside his apartment and decides to take it in for the night. It has a collar; its name is Yuri. Otabek plans on taking care of it until he can bring it to a shelter or to its owner, but there is quite a lot more to this cat than meets the eye, and Otabek gets roped into taking care of something that he never could have been prepared for.





	and i will love you like a bird that cannot fly (you will be fine)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mostladylikeladythateverladied](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mostladylikeladythateverladied/gifts).



    Thunder clapped viciously overhead, momentarily overshadowing the sound of the rain as it poured down onto the pavement. A shudder ran through Otabek’s body, but he did not let it phase him otherwise. Even a slight jerk of his hand could cause his motorcycle to slide off of the road, at best causing him to wipe out with some minor injuries and at worst causing him to crash into another vehicle and get himself killed. He tried not to let himself think about that, instead focusing on the fact that he was only about five miles from home. 

 

    Driving around the crowded city in the rain on a motorcycle was arguably more dangerous than on a backroad or even a freeway, considering how many stops and turns there were and how congested it was. Though, at least he wasn’t going 70 miles per hour with larger vehicles all around him doing the same. Admittedly, though, Otabek was pushing the limit of safe speeds just so that he could get back to his apartment complex as quickly as possible.

 

    He pulled into the first parking spot that he could find as soon as he had made it to the parking lot of his apartment complex. He turned the engine off, grabbed his keys, stuffed them into his pocket, and kicked the bike’s kickstand down before swinging his leg over the side so that he could dismount. He took his helmet off before he even started walking to the building, and, almost immediately, his previously dry face and hair became just as drenched as the rest of his body already was. 

 

    He tucked his helmet under his arm and began to sprint to the apartment complex’s entrance, splashing water onto his pants as his boots landed hard in the half-inch of water that seemed to be pooling on the asphalt. He made a beeline for the stairs that led to the front door, but slowed down once he was close to them so that he didn’t slip and fall down them while he was walking up them. However, he stopped before even setting a foot on the first step when he heard a bizarre noise coming from somewhere beside him.

 

    The sound was garbled beneath the rain, and Otabek figured that the only reason he even heard it was because whatever it was coming from was incredibly close by. But looking around, he saw nothing through the thick sheets of raindrops and the dark created by the storm clouds above. After a minute, he shook his head as if to clear it, deciding that he had either imagined the sound or that whatever made it had left the area rather quickly. Pushing it out of his mind, he finally managed to start walking up the stairs.

 

    However, once he had made it to the top of the stairs, he heard the sound again. He stopped at the top of the stairs and narrowed his eyes at the distance, straining his ears to see if he could possibly pinpoint where the sound was coming from. The only thing that he could think of to describe it was the cry of a drowning cat. But Otabek still had no idea what was making it or where it was. 

 

    Once more, he heard it. It now sounded like it was coming from somewhere below, so he looked down over the railing of the stairs to see if he could spot anything out of the ordinary. To his surprise, pressed up against the side of the stairs was a ball of grayish-white fuzz that Otabek eventually recognized as an actual cat. A kitten, no less. 

 

    The animal was small, fragile-looking, and soaking wet. Otabek didn’t know how it had gotten there, but it didn’t seem capable of moving to shelter. With how drenched it was, it was very likely that the cat was already sick. After seeing it, there was no way that Otabek could leave it outside alone, especially not in this weather. 

 

    He quickly walked down the stairs again--or, as quickly as he could without risking slipping and falling on his ass. Once he had stepped off of the last stair, he darted around to the side so that he could grab the cat. The small creature was obviously frightened and tried to scamper away from Otabek as he leaned down to scoop it up, but ended up running into the concrete behind it, and was helpless as Otabek’s fingers closed gently but firmly around its torso. 

 

    The cat was, thankfully, small enough that Otabek could carry it in one hand, so he didn’t have to reposition the helmet that was still under his arm. He walked up the stairs once again, this time without any interruptions. He turned around so that his back was facing the front door and he pushed it open with his body. Once inside, he stepped away from the door and let it swing shut behind him as he sped towards the elevator in the lobby.

 

    He didn’t want to jostle the cat too much, so instead of prying a finger from the cat’s torso to push the elevator call button, he stiffly extended the hand of the arm that he was keeping his helmet under and pressed the button with that hand instead. Water slid down the metal patch that had been placed over the button, having slipped off of his finger when he pressed it. Water started to pool on the vinyl tile floor beneath his feet as it dripped from his clothes and his hair, not to mention the cat. And when the door for the elevator finally opened and he was able to step inside, the water began to pool on the floor in there, too.

 

    Otabek’s apartment was only on the second floor, but the elevator was old and it was slow, so the trip took a few minutes. When the doors opened again, Otabek strode out of it and into the hallway, then continued to walk quickly until he reached his apartment at the end of the hall. He set his helmet down beside the door and fished around in the front pocket of his pants so that he could get his keys out. He unlocked the door to his apartment, opened it, and kicked his helmet inside before going inside himself.

 

    The moment that he shut the door, everything was forgotten except for the cat. The cat was his first and only priority right now. The trouble was that Otabek had never taken care of a cat on his own before, much less an abandoned, soaking kitten that he had taken in off of the streets. He didn’t have any of the proper supplies needed to take care of a cat; he didn’t even have food for it. But he didn’t want to try to take the cat to a shelter while it was still storming outside, and besides, it needed care quickly. Otabek would just have to do what he could for it and hope for the best.

 

    He tossed his keys onto the table that was by the door, and once his hand was free, he wrapped it around the cat so that he was holding the cat with both hands. He brought the cat close to his face so that he could examine it and see if there was anything wrong with it that was immediately visible, aside from the fact that it was soaking wet. He didn’t see anything that made it look like the cat was hurt, but he did notice that there was a collar around its neck with a tag attached to it. Raising an eyebrow, he removed one hand from the cat’s torso and took the tag between his fingers so that he could read what it said. 

 

    There was merely a name on the tag and nothing more. Yuri. Otabek had to chuckle. He had a family friend whose husband had the same name. He would have to call the two of them and tell them about this little kitten once he had figured out what to do with it. 

 

    “Well, come on, Yuri,” Otabek said softly to the cat, “we should probably get you dried off.”

 

    Otabek gently lowered the cat away from his face and began to walk towards his bedroom. Once inside, he set the cat down in the middle of his bed, hoping that it would be a safe place to leave the cat for a few minutes while he went to his bathroom to grab a towel. He squatted down to the cabinet beneath the sink and opened it, then scanned the top shelf for an unused hand towel next to the bath towels. He grabbed one, then shut the cabinet, stood up, and walked back into the bedroom.

 

    Thankfully, the cat was still on the bed when Otabek returned. It seemed like the cat had not moved an inch since Otabek had set it down, opting instead to curl up on the warm comforter and sleep. Otabek felt bad for disturbing it again, but he needed to get it dry before he tried to figure out what else to do with it.

 

    He sat down on the bed and picked the cat up with the towel. The cat mewled and struggled against Otabek’s grip, sinking its claws into the comforter in an attempt to hold its ground. Otabek gently removed each individual nail from the comforter before further wrapping the cat up in the towel and then rubbing the towel over its fur to dry up as much of the water as possible. 

 

    When Otabek finally removed the towel and set the cat down on the bed again, he noticed that the cat’s fur was considerably less gray now than it had been before the cat was dry. A quick glance at the hand towel showed that a lot of dirt and grime had come off with the water. Otabek wondered if the cat’s fur was supposed to be a very bright white. He might have to think about giving the cat a proper bath if that was the case, but he would worry about that later. 

 

    By the time that Otabek had shifted his gaze from the towel and back to the cat, the cat was already curled up and asleep on the comforter again. Otabek smiled faintly at it, then stood up from the bed and left the bedroom again, tossing the dirtied hand towel into the hamper that was by the door as he went. He headed to the kitchen so that he could sit down at his laptop, which was closed and asleep on top of the kitchen table.

 

    Now that the cat was dry, he figured that he should go about finding out if he had anything in his home that he could feed it until he had the opportunity to go out and buy it some food. He had noticed when he was carrying it that he could feel its ribs quite easily through its thin fur. If he had to guess, he’d say that it probably hadn’t eaten in a while. He was far from inclined to let the poor thing starve while in his care.

 

    He pulled out a chair and sat down at the kitchen table, then opened his laptop and woke it up. After typing in his password and getting to the desktop, he did a quick search on foods that were safe for cats to eat. It seemed that the general consensus was that cats could eat all sorts of cooked meats as an occasional treat but that it shouldn’t be part of their main diet. 

 

_ Well, that’s fine,  _ Otabek thought,  _ I’ll only be feeding him that until I can get him some proper food. _

 

__ Besides,  _ something  _ was always better than nothing. 

 

    He had some cooked brisket in the fridge, he knew. If he cut it up into small pieces, that should be okay for the cat to eat, right? So he stood from the table and walked to the fridge to get the meat out of it. He used a fork to grab a single slice out of the plastic container that it was in and then set it on a plate so that he could cut it. He cut the pieces as small as possible, not only so that the cat could fit them into its mouth, but so that the cat would have to do the minimal amount of chewing. After he was finished, he set the plate on the kitchen floor, then put the rest of the meat away.

 

    A peek into the bedroom told Otabek that the cat was still fast asleep on the bed. Otabek decided to leave it alone for now. When it woke up, he would make it eat. But for now, he figured that some sleep in a safe and warm environment would do it some good.

 

    In the meantime, he supposed he could call Viktor and Yuri and tell them about what happened. He unzipped the leather jacket that he was wearing and reached into the pocket that was on the inside of it to get his cellphone out. As he unlocked the phone and went into his contacts to find Viktor’s phone number, he shrugged the wet jacket off and laid it across the back of one of the chairs in the kitchen, not wanting to take it to his closet while it was still wet. After setting the jacket down, he called Viktor and lifted the phone to his ear.

 

    The phone rang for a minute before Viktor picked up. “Beka! Hello! How are you doing, my friend?” 

 

    “Hello, Viktor,” Otabek greeted with a small smile. “I’m doing well today. How are you? Is Yuri well?” 

 

    “Oh, we’re both doing just fine. Nothing too exciting going on these days but we’re managing,” Viktor teased. “What about you, Beka? Anything exciting going on for you?”

 

    “Actually, something did happen today. That’s why I called you,” Otabek told him.

 

    “Oh?” Viktor asked. “What is it? Is everything okay?”

 

    Otabek chuckled slightly. “Yes, yes, everything’s fine. It’s just that, I found a stray cat outside of my apartment complex today. It was pouring rain and the poor thing was soaked to the bone; I had to take him inside. Funny thing is, he has a collar with a nametag on it. Apparently his name is Yuri.”

 

    At that, Viktor started to laugh. “Oh, what a funny coincidence. Hey, Yuri!”

 

    Otabek heard a muffled voice in the background but couldn’t make out what was being said. 

 

    “Beka said he found a stray cat today whose nametag says he has the same name as you!” Viktor said. 

 

    There was more muffled speaking from Yuri. 

 

    “Hold on, I’ll ask him,” Viktor replied, then followed up with “Hey Beka, Yuri wants to know if you’ll send us a picture of the cat.”

 

    Otabek chuckled again. “Sure, but I’ll do it a bit later. He’s sleeping in the middle of my bed right now and is curled up pretty deeply in the sheets. Just looks like a ball of white lint,” he said, then pursed his lips. “He’s a skinny little thing. The collar makes me think that he belongs to someone, but he’s dirty and looks like he hasn’t eaten in days. I don’t want to take him to a shelter in case someone lost him and wants him back, but I don’t have the supplies to take care of him properly, especially not long-term.”

 

    Viktor hummed in thought for a moment, then began speaking to Yuri again. “Yuri, do you have any plans tomorrow?” After getting a response, Viktor spoke to Otabek again. “Yuri and I aren’t doing anything tomorrow. If you’d like, we can drop by your place and pick up some supplies on the way. If you send us a picture of the cat, we can make a poster for it and print some out, then we can hang them up around where you live.”

 

    Otabek’s eyes widened slightly. “Oh, you two don’t have to go through all of that trouble. I can do that all myself, don’t worry about it.”

 

    “Nonsense,” Viktor dismissed. “It’s been a while since we got to see you, anyways. It’s about time we got together and did something again! This is the perfect excuse, no?” 

 

    Yuri’s muffled voice returned, and Viktor laughed. “Listen, Yuri’s already made his mind up that he wants to see his cat doppleganger in person. We’re coming to see you, and there’s no way you’re getting out of it.”

 

    Otabek sighed exaggeratedly, smiling. “Oh, alright. I’ll see you two tomorrow, then,” he said. 

 

    “Yes! See you tomorrow! Bye-bye!” Viktor exclaimed, then ended the call. 

 

    Otabek shook his head as he set his phone down on the kitchen table. His arm momentarily brushed against the leather jacket that he had discarded, and he realized that he was still wearing wet clothes and shoes. His helmet was also still on the floor by the front door. Now that the cat had been taken care of, maybe it was a good time to start cleaning up.

 

    He walked over to the helmet and grabbed it up off the floor, then walked back to his bedroom. He shut the door behind him and walked to his closet. After putting his helmet away on the shelf that was designated for it, he lifted his feet up one at a time to pull his boots and socks off and then set them neatly beside the closet. He unbuttoned and unzipped his pants and let them slide down his legs, pooling around his ankles. He stepped out of the pants while lifting his shirt over his head at the same time. He gathered up all of the dirty clothes and tossed them into the hamper before going into his closet to get clean pajamas and put them on. 

 

    As he was pulling his pajama shirt on over his head, he heard soft mewling behind him. He turned around before he had fully gotten the collar of his shirt down to his neck, but once the fabric had stopped covering his face, he saw that the cat was awake and standing at the edge of the bed, looking down at the floor. Every few seconds it would tentatively stick a paw off of the bed but then pull it back, scared to try walking off of the bed and evidently not knowing how to jump off of it instead. 

 

    Otabek smiled again. “You ready to get down from there, little one?” he asked, walking over to the bed.

 

    The cat looked up at him and meowed loudly as he once again wrapped his fingers around its torso and lifted it off of the bed. “Come on, you need to eat something,” Otabek told it, then carried it out of the bedroom and into the kitchen.

 

    He set it down in front of the plate of brisket that he had put on the floor earlier. He watched as the cat stared at the meat for several seconds, then started sniffing and eventually pawing at the meat before trying to eat it. Otabek hummed in satisfaction when the cat finally began to eat.

 

    He realized that if the cat hadn’t eaten in a few days, then chances were that it hadn’t had anything to drink either, even if it had been trudging around in the pouring rain. He left the cat alone at the plate and walked to one of his kitchen cabinets to get a small glass bowl out of it. He filled it up with water from the sink and set it down beside the plate. Then, he leaned against the counter and watched the cat as it ate and drank. 

 

    After the cat had had its fill, it became brave enough to explore Otabek’s apartment a little. Otabek followed it as it walked, making sure that it didn’t get into any trouble. He wasn’t entirely sure if his apartment was kitten-friendly or not. 

 

    He snapped several pictures of the cat with his cellphone while following it around and sent them to Viktor and Yuri. If the fifteen heart emojis that Yuri had sent were anything to go by, he was in love with the cat. Otabek was less expressive about it, but he shared the sentiment. 

 

    The evening was quiet. It stopped raining at about 7:00 PM. At that time, the cat had managed to climb up onto Otabek’s couch, curl up on it, and fall back asleep. Since the cat was no longer travelling, Otabek decided that it was a good time to make himself dinner before he sat on the couch beside the cat and watched TV until he was tired enough to go to sleep.

 

    At around 10:00 PM, Otabek finally decided that he would retire for the night. The cat had warmed up to him enough by that point that it was now curled up by Otabek’s thigh while he scratched behind its ears. However, it still struggled against him when he picked it up to take it back to his room again.

 

    He closed the door again once he was inside the room, then set the cat down on the floor. He didn’t want the cat to have free reign over the apartment while he slept, but realized that having it sleep in the bed with him was probably not the best idea, considering that it was small enough that Otabek could crush it if he accidently rolled over on it in his sleep. Otabek also didn’t have a litter box for the cat in case it would end up needing to use something like that tonight, and even if he had, the cat had proved that it didn’t know how to get down from the bed on its own. So, in the end, Otabek decided that he would just lay one of his junkier bath towels out on the bedroom floor and let the cat sleep there for the night.

 

    It took some coaxing to get the cat to go onto the towel, but once Otabek had gotten it there, it seemed like it would not be moving for some time. It kept doing the same thing that it had been doing on the bed earlier; sticking one paw off of the towel but then pulling it back. Eventually, it simply sat on the towel and looked up at Otabek. 

 

    “Get some sleep, Yuri,” Otabek told it. “Viktor and big Yuri are coming to visit us tomorrow. They’ll bring me some supplies to take care of you properly with.”

 

    With that, he turned off the lights in the room, placed his cellphone on his nightstand, and crawled into bed so he could sleep.

 

    Otabek had a dreamless sleep and awoke at 7:00 in the morning to sunlight hitting his face, entering the room through the cracks on the blinds that covered his bedroom window. Despite being awake, he kept his eyes shut for a little while, trying to see if he could fall back asleep for just a little while longer. He gave up after five minutes and let his eyes flutter open, then rubbed them as he started to sit up.

 

    Out of the corner of his bleary eye he saw part of the stained and ragged bath towel that he had laid out on the floor the night before. He suddenly remembered the events of last night, the cat that he had rescued having momentarily slipped his mind in his sleep. He was ready to get out of bed and greet the little thing with a smile, but when he finally stopped rubbing his eyes and his vision cleared, what he saw lying on the bath towel made him question whether he was really awake or not. 

 

    The small, dirty white kitten that Otabek had taken in last night was nowhere to be found. Instead, there was a skinny, naked, and bruised young man with chin-length blond hair who looked to be about Otabek’s age sleeping on the floor. And, to Otabek’s further surprise, the man appeared to have cat ears and a tail. He was also wearing a collar with a name tag around his neck; the exact same type of collar that the cat from last night had been wearing. 

 

    “What the fuck,” he said aloud.

 

    The cat-man’s ears twitched and his tail flicked back and forth for a second, but after that, he didn’t stir. Otabek simply stared at the cat-man and blinked several times in disbelief, unable to comprehend what he was seeing. He pinched himself, but decided that the slight sting if his fingernails digging into his skin was not enough to prove whether he was awake or not. He slapped himself hard across the face instead. The pain was definitely real, and the sound of the hit was loud enough that it actually woke the cat-man up.

 

    His eyes shot open, and Otabek saw that they were cat-like and jade-green; the same color as the cat’s. They stared sharply at Otabek, piercing enough to send a shiver down Otabek’s spine. The look only lasted a moment before the cat-man rolled onto his hands and knees and stretched his arms out in front of him as far as he could reach, raising his back end in the air. He then sat up on crossed legs and yawned before setting his hands in his lap and staring at Otabek again.

 

    “What the fuck,” Otabek repeated.

 

    The cat-man pouted at him. “What’s  _ your  _ problem?” he asked.

 

    Otabek choked on air. “You can  _ talk!? _ ”

 

    The cat-man narrowed his eyes. “Of course I can, dumbass. Why wouldn’t I be able to?” 

 

    Otabek opened his mouth to reply, but he could think of nothing to say. He ran his fingers through his hair, laughing quietly, then sighed. He reached over to his nightstand and snatched his cellphone off of it before climbing out of bed. 

 

    “Excuse me for a minute,” he said, then rushed into the bathroom, shutting and locking the door behind him. 

 

    He walked over to the toilet and put both the seat and the lid down so that he could sit on it. However, he froze for a moment after realizing he had put down both the seat and the lid. He was not the type of man who left the seat up and he was sure that the lid had not been up when he had gotten the bath towel out of the cabinet last night. 

 

    He shook his head with another sigh and sat down, trying to clear his head of the thought. If that cat-man could talk--no, if he  _ existed  _ in general--it was just as well that he knew how to use a toilet as well. Regardless, Otabek needed help, and he needed it fast.

 

    He unlocked his phone and called Viktor again. He pressed the phone to his ear and waited for Viktor to pick up. Every second that he had to wait, Otabek swore he could feel his heartbeat getting faster. 

 

    “Beka! You caught me at a good time; Yuri and I are just about to leave the house. What’s up?” Viktor asked when he picked up, and Otabek breathed a massive sigh of relief.

 

    “Viktor, I need your help,” he said, keeping his voice low. “Something… strange, has happened, and I don’t know what to do.”

 

    “Strange? What’s happened, Beka? What’s going on?” Viktor asked, his tone quickly shifting from cheerful to worried. 

 

    “You know the cat that I took in last night?” 

 

    “Yes… the reason that Yuri and I are coming to visit… is everything okay?”

 

    “The cat is gone.”

 

    “Oh dear. Have you--”

 

    “It turned into a man, Viktor.”

 

    “...what?” 

 

    “The cat,” Otabek said, “it turned into a man. There is a naked man in my room, sitting on the towel that I laid out for the cat last night, wearing the same collar that the cat was wearing. He’s even got cat ears and a tail! I feel like I’m losing my mind!”

 

    Viktor laughed, though a bit uneasily. “Don’t scare me like that, Beka, it isn’t funny. Is there something wrong with the cat? Are you okay?” 

 

    “I’m being serious!” Otabek hissed. “There’s a cat-man in my room right now! The cat turned into a man!” 

 

    “...Beka, are you sure you’re--”

 

    “I know it sounds unbelievable, I know,” Otabek interrupted. “Just… hold on a minute, okay? I’m going to hang up and and I’m going to send you a picture. Just wait a minute.”

 

    “Beka, you--”

 

    Otabek hung up before he could hear the rest of what Viktor was trying to say to him. 

 

    He stood up from the toilet and opened his camera app as he walked back to the bathroom door. He unlocked the door and opened it, then held his phone in front of his face as he walked into the bedroom and positioned it so that he could take a picture of the cat-man. Currently, the cat man was lying on his back on the floor with his hands folded behind his head and one knee resting on top of the other. He narrowed his eyes at Otabek while Otabek was taking his picture. 

 

    “What are you doing? Are you taking my picture again?” he asked.

 

    Otabek ignored him and sat down on his bed, then texted the picture to Viktor and Yuri. 

 

    “You were following me around with your phone all night last night. I know you were taking pictures of me,” the cat-man said, sitting up and putting his hands in his lap again. 

 

_ [Viktor]: what the fuck is that Otabek??? _

 

_     [Yuri]: WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU SENDING US NEKOMIMI HENTAI OTABEK WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON _

 

_     [Otabek]: IT’S NOT GODDAMN PORN THIS IS THE FUCKING CAT-MAN THAT’S IN MY GODDAMN ROOM RIGHT NOW LIKE I FUCKING TOLD VIKTOR ON THE PHONE _

 

__ Otabek opened his camera again and snapped another picture of the cat-man, this time with a view of his hamper and the door to his room in it so that he could prove it was his room. The cat-man glared at him again, then stood up and walked over to the bed. Otabek sent the second picture to Viktor and Yuri.

 

    “Why do you want so many pictures of me? My last person never took pictures of me,” the cat man commented as he sat down beside Otabek. 

 

    He glanced over Otabek’s shoulder at the phone screen. His eyes widened and he pressed his finger to Yuri’s name at the top of the screen where it listed the names of the people who were in the group chat. “Hey! That’s my name!” he exclaimed. “Who are you talking to? I don’t have a phone! Who are you talking to that has my name?”

 

    Otabek swatted the cat-man’s hand off of the screen as another text came in from Viktor, and then from Yuri. The cat-man gasped when he felt Otabek’s hand pushing his own away, then he hissed and swatted back at Otabek. Otabek stood up from the bed and moved away from the cat-man.

 

_ [Viktor]: Otabek what is this. Did you sleep with someone last night?? Why are you sending us nudes of your new boyfriend?? _

 

_     [Yuri]: HWAT TJE FUKC IS GOIGN ON BEKAA _

 

__ “Why are you ignoring me?” the cat-man demanded. “You’re taking pictures of me and sending them to someone who has my name! I deserve answers!”

 

    Otabek’s phone started ringing then. Looking at the caller ID, Otabek saw that it was Viktor. Once again, he ignored the cat-man, and instead answered his phone as quickly as he could.

 

    “OTABEK WHAT’S HAPPENING ARE YOU OKAY WHY DID--”

 

    Otabek had to pull the phone away from his ear so that his eardrum didn’t blasted out by Yuri’s loud and panic-stricken voice. 

 

    Thankfully, Viktor was able to interrupt and calm his husband down. “Yuri, love, please stop yelling. You’re going to scare him away if you do that.”

 

    “Scaring  _ him!?  _ He’s  _ terrifying  _ me! I want to know why he’s sending us nekomimi porn from his room I need answers I--”

 

    “And we’ll  _ get them,  _ but not if you’re yelling at him, now please, just give the phone back to me.”

 

    In the time that Viktor and Yuri had spent arguing, the cat-man had moved off of the bed and had once again walked over to where Otabek was. Otabek moved away from him again, but the cat-man continued to follow him. With a sigh, Otabek finally returned to the bed, and once again, the cat-man sat next to him.

 

    There was a bit of rustling on the other end of the line before Viktor finally spoke again. “Beka, Yuri and I are very worried about you. Who is that person you’ve sent us pictures of?” he asked.

 

    “I already told you,” Otabek grunted, annoyed. “It’s the cat-man. The cat I found last night is gone and now there’s this  _ thing  _ in its place.”

 

    “Are you talking about me?” the cat-man asked, cocking his head to the side as his tail flicked from side to side. 

 

    “Beka, you’re really not making any sense. Are you feeling alright? Are you sick? Have you been drinking?” Viktor asked.

 

    “No I’m  _ fine  _ there’s just a  _ cat-man  _ in my goddamn  _ room.  _ How hard is that to understand?” Otabek snapped.

 

    “Who are you talking to? Is that Yuri? Are you talking to Yuri?” the cat-man asked. 

 

    When Otabek didn’t answer, the cat-man started to paw at his arm, hand, and shoulder. Otabek got fed up with it. He shoved the cat-man away from him in an attempt to stop the pawing, but the cat-man was caught off-guard by the action and lost his balance. He tumbled off the bed with a hiss and a scream that sounded like that of a cat, then hit the floor with a thud. The sound was loud enough that it started Otabek, making him jump a little. It was loud enough that Viktor could hear it on the other end of the line, too.

 

    “Beka? What just happened? Did you find the cat?”

 

    “God,  _ no, _ ” Otabek growled as the cat-man sat up and shook himself off. “The cat isn’t here, okay? The cat’s gone. It’s just gone. What I need you to help me with is this fucking  _ man  _ that took its place. Can you please just help me out? Please?”

 

    “Beka, do you still want us to come over today, or…?”

 

_ “Yes.”  _

 

    “Okay, okay,” Viktor said, his tone sounding like he really wanted to calm Otabek down. “Listen, we’re going to leave the house right now and we’ll be there as soon as we can. It should only take half an hour. We’ll see you soon, okay?” 

 

    “Yeah, see you soon,” Otabek said, running a hand through his hair, and Viktor ended the call.

 

    With another sigh, Otabek set his phone down on the bed and looked at the cat-man, who was glaring at him once again. “What the fuck is your damage, pal?” the cat-man asked. “You take me into this weird-ass apartment, feed me leftover meat that tastes like fridge, take pictures of me all night, make me sleep on the floor, you won’t answer any of my questions, and then you shove me off the bed? What’s wrong with you?”

 

    “What’s wrong with me? You want to know what’s wrong with me?” Otabek asked. “There is a  _ cat-man  _ in my  _ bedroom.  _ That’s what’s wrong with me!”

 

    The cat-man frowned deeply, as if what Otabek said had greatly offended him. “If you didn’t want me here then you shouldn’t have brought me where in the first place. Why didn’t you just leave me out on the street?” 

 

    “I thought I was taking in a  _ kitten!  _ A little helpless creature who would have drowned or starved if I hadn’t taken it in! Not some bizarre… cat… human… hybrid!”

 

    The cat-man’s expression faltered, and for a moment he looked incredibly hurt and vulnerable. The expression was enough to make Otabek feel bad for what he had said. But the cat-man quickly regained his composure and glared daggers at Otabek.

 

    “W-well, too bad. You took me in, so you’re stuck with me now, whether you like it or not,” he said, then turned around so that his back was facing Otabek and crossed his arms over his chest. 

 

    The two of them sat in silence for a long time, until finally Otabek decided that he would be far more comfortable with this situation if the cat-man was actually wearing some clothes. The cat-man was a bit shorter and definitely a lot skinnier than Otabek was, but that didn’t matter. If Otabek’s clothes were a bit baggy on the cat-man, then so be it. The cat-man would just have to deal with it. 

 

    Otabek stood up from the bed and walked to the closet. After opening it, he dug around in his drawers and pulled out a pair of underwear, the tightest pants that he had, and an old t-shirt. He closed the drawers and the closet, then turned to face the cat-man again.

 

    “Hey, cat,” he called. 

 

    The cat-man looked up at Otabek and scrunched up his nose. “I have a  _ name,  _ you know,” he said, then tugged at the nametag on his collar and lifted it up for Otabek to see. “It’s  _ Yuri.  _ Like whoever you were sending those pictures of me to,  _ remember? _ ”

 

    “No,” Otabek said firmly. “I can’t… I can’t call you that. It’s weird now.”

 

    The cat-man’s mouth dropped open indignantly. “Then what the hell are you gonna call me? Because it sure as  _ hell  _ better not be ‘cat’ or I will maul you.”

 

    “I’ll think of something later,” Otabek told him. A name for the cat-man was not a priority. 

 

    He held the clothes out to the cat-man. “Do you know how to put these on?”

 

    The cat-man hissed at him and drew back. “No way am I putting those on, pal.”

 

    Otabek narrowed his eyes. “Why not?”

 

    “They’re uncomfortable.”

 

    “You haven’t even tried them on yet!”

 

    “ _ Clothes  _ are uncomfortable, dummy.” 

 

    “Well, tough luck,” Otabek said and threw the clothes at the cat-man. “If you don’t put them on, I’ll make you.”

 

    “I’d like to see you try, asshole,” the cat-man spat back.

 

    Otabek stared down at the cat-man for a moment before swiftly leaning down to grab one of his arms. The cat-man gasped and drew back, his eyes wide. He looked frightened. He hissed and started to claw at Otabek’s hand, trying to get Otabek to release him.

 

    “Alright, alright! I’ll put them on! Stop touching me!”

 

    Otabek narrowed his eyes at the cat-man for a moment before releasing the cat-man’s arm from his grip.

 

    The cat-man snatched up the clothes he had been given and pulled them on quickly, glaring the whole time. After he had gotten them on, he tugged at them and whined lowly but continually, clearly wanting to get out of them despite not having worn them for even a few seconds.

 

    “How can you people stand wearing all this shit? It’s hot and constricting and feels bad. I want it off!”

 

    “If you’re in my home, you at least need to have some decency. As long as you’re staying here, you’ll wear the clothes.”

 

    The cat-man groaned loudly and fell on the floor, lying on his back and continuing to pull at his clothes. 

 

    Otabek rolled his eyes. “I’m hungry. I’m going to make something to eat before Viktor and Yuri get here. Do you want something?”

 

    The cat-man momentarily stopped fussing with his clothes and looked up at Otabek. “I certainly don’t want any of that nasty fridge-meat you gave me last night,” he said.

 

    “Well, how does bacon and eggs sound?” Otabek asked.

 

    The cat-man sat bolt upright with his hands in his lap again and he smiled at Otabek. “Now  _ that’s  _ more like it!”

 

    “Then come with me into the kitchen,” Otabek instructed. 

 

    He grabbed his cellphone off of the bed before walking out of the bedroom, leaving the door open so that the cat-man could follow him. He walked to the kitchen and set his phone down on the counter. Now that the cat he had taken in was no longer a cat, there was no reason for dishes full of brisket and water to be out on the kitchen floor, so Otabek cleaned those up before he started making breakfast. 

 

    The cat-man finally made it out of the bedroom just as Otabek was pulling bacon and eggs out of the fridge. He walked to the kitchen while Otabek found a frying pan and turned the stove on. He pulled himself up onto the kitchen counter and sat with his legs hanging off of it as Otabek started to cook the food.

 

    After Otabek had finished cooking the food, he plated it and grabbed forks and knives for both him and the cat-man. He turned around to see the cat-man propped up on the counter, licking the back of his hand and then rubbing it behind his ears. Otabek’s nose twitched. 

 

    “Get down from there. Go sit at the table,” he ordered. 

 

    The cat-man pouted at him again. “You’re bossy,” he commented, but did as he was told anyways.

 

    He and Otabek walked to the table together. Otabek set both plates down, then sat in one of the chairs. The cat-man sat next to him--though Otabek had deliberately set their plates across from each other instead of next to each other--and pulled the other plate close to him. He started eating with his hands instead of a fork and knife. Otabek squinted at him.

 

    “Do you know how to use the utensils I gave you?”

 

    The cat-man looked at Otabek with half a strip of bacon hanging out of his mouth. “Yeah,” he mumbled around it.

 

    “Then why aren’t you?”

 

    “...because using my hands is easier?”

 

    “Use the fork.”

 

    The cat-man groaned loudly, but once again, he did as he was told. 

 

    After that, breakfast was eaten in silence. Otabek cleared the plates and washed them once both he and the cat-man had finished. The cat-man excused himself from the table and decided to make himself at home on Otabek’s couch, curling up right in the middle of it and just laying there with no intention to make room for Otabek to sit down even after Otabek had joined him in the living room. With a sigh, Otabek sat down on the floor in front of the couch instead, then grabbed the TV remote so he could channel surf for a while.

 

    Fifteen minutes later, Otabek heard hard footsteps in the hallway outside his apartment. A second later, there was heavy pounding on his front door, accompanied by a distressed voice that Otabek immediately recognized as Yuri’s. “Beka!! We’re here! Please open the door! Please!!”

 

    The cat-man turned his head to look towards where the voice was coming from, even though he could only see the back of the couch from how he was laying. “Who’s that?” he asked, but didn’t show any more interest than that.

 

    Otabek didn’t answer him. Instead, he stood up from the floor and walked briskly over to the door so he could open it. He was almost met with Yuri’s fist in his face, as Yuri kept trying to knock on the door even after it had opened and didn’t notice that the only thing to knock on was Otabek’s forehead until his knuckles were an inch away from it. Otabek stepped back, his eyes slightly widened, and Yuri pulled his hand back with a yelp.

 

    “Beka!! I’m so sorry! I didn’t see you!”

 

    “It’s fine,” Otabek dismissed, then gestured for Yuri and Viktor to come into the apartment. 

 

    Yuri shuffled into the apartment first and Viktor followed behind him. Otabek closed the door once they were both inside. At the sound of the door closing, the cat-man sat up on the couch and looked sharply at the three men who were standing in front of the door, which caused Yuri to yelp and Viktor to gasp. 

 

    “Hey!” the cat-man hissed. “Who the hell are  _ these  _ people!?”

 

    “These are Viktor and Yuri,” Otabek told him, gesturing to the men as he said their names. 

 

    The cat-man glared at Yuri and hissed, his ears folding back slightly, causing Yuri to jump a little. 

 

    Viktor placed his hands on Yuri’s shoulders and looked at Otabek. “So, who is that, Beka?” he asked, cocking his head towards the cat-man. 

 

    “My  _ name  _ is  _ Yuri! _ ” the cat-man shouted, grabbing the nametag on his collar again and holding it up for the men to see. 

 

    “Just like… the cat…” Yuri murmured.

 

    “That’s what I’ve been trying to say!” Otabek said exasperatedly, throwing his arms out toward the cat-man.

 

    Slowly, Yuri pushed Viktor’s hands off of his shoulders and began to walk towards the couch. He stood in front of the cat-man, gazing at the ears that were on top of his head. He reached his fingers out to touch the base of the ears, feeling where they were attached to his head. The cat-man hissed again and tilted his head up so that he could nip at Yuri’s fingers. Yuri yelped again and quickly pulled his hand back.

 

    “H-hey, what’s your problem with me, anyways?” he asked, frowning. 

 

    “I don’t like you,” the cat-man said simply, folding his arms over his chest.

 

    “Wh-why don’t you like me? You’ve barely even met me!”

 

    “You have the same name as me, and now Beka won’t call me by my name! He just calls me ‘Cat!’”

 

    Otabek’s cheek twitched at being called “Beka” by the cat-man. That was something only Viktor and Yuri ever called him. He didn’t feel comfortable hearing it from the cat-man’s mouth.

 

    “My name is Otabek,” he corrected.

 

    “And my name is  _ Yuri! _ ”

 

    Yuri turned to look back at Otabek. “Why won’t you call him by his name, Beka?”

 

    “It was cute that he had the same name as you when he was a  _ cat!  _ He’s not a cat anymore!” Otabek exclaimed. 

 

    “Well, he has to have a name. He’s a person now, we can’t just simply call him ‘Cat,’” Viktor said. 

 

    Otabek looked at Viktor. “Then what do  _ you  _ propose we call him?”

 

    Viktor put a hand to his chin and stuck his tongue out in thought. He was silent for a moment as he stared up at the ceiling as though he was concentrating really hard. Finally, he pulled his hand away from his chin and snapped his fingers with a smile.

 

    “We’ll call him  _ Yurio! _ ”

 

    “Yurio?” the other three asked in unison, all of them looking at Viktor.

 

    “I don’t want to be called Yurio! Yuri is my name!” the cat-man protested.

 

    “Yurio it is,” Otabek said.

 

_ “What!?”  _ the cat-man exclaimed. “But that’s not my name! It’s only one letter off! If you can call me Yurio then why can’t you call me Yuri?”

 

    “Think of it as a nickname, or sorts,” Viktor interjected. “A cute little nickname for a cute cat like you!”

 

    “Gross!” the cat-man hissed.

 

    “As long as you’re in my home, you’ll be called Yurio. That’s final,” Otabek declared.

 

    The cat-man glared at him. “If you can call me Yurio, then I can call you Beka. How about that?” he asked. 

 

    Otabek glared right back at him. Viktor and Yuri both glanced back and forth between the two as the tension between them became palpable in the air. Finally, Otabek sighed.

 

    “Fine. We’ll call you Yurio, and you can call me Beka.”

 

    Yurio clapped his hands together and grinned broadly, purring. “Beka! Beka, Beka, Beka!” 

 

    “Pipe down,” Otabek snapped.

 

    Viktor laughed. 

 

    “So… what do we do now…?” Yuri asked, looking at Otabek once again.

 

    “I don’t know. That’s why I asked the two of you to come over, so you could help me figure it out,” Otabek replied. 

 

    “Well, since he’s clearly not your average cat, I’m sure that no one is missing him, so those posters we printed will be pretty much useless…” Viktor mused.

 

    “But if he doesn’t belong to anyone, then where did he get his collar and his name from?” Yuri asked.

 

    “My last person gave them to me,” Yurio piped up. 

 

    The other men looked at him again. 

 

    “So you  _ do  _ belong to someone?” Viktor asked, raising an eyebrow. 

 

    “Not anymore,” Yurio said, his expression faltering a little. 

 

    “What happened…?” Yuri asked. 

 

    “...she threw me out,” Yurio answered hesitantly, his ears folding back as he looked away. “She never liked me much. Her dog didn’t, either. She liked her dog better. He started a fight with me but made it look like it was my fault, so she threw me out on the street.”

 

    “Oh… Yurio…” Yuri murmured. 

 

    Viktor furrowed his brow. “Did she know that you could turn into… a person?” he asked, hesitating at the end of the sentence but lacking a better word. 

 

    Yurio shook his head. “Maybe if she had… Maybe… Maybe she would have liked me more…” he whimpered, his lips quivering. He turned his head to look at Otabek again. “That’s why I showed you! I didn’t want you to throw me out again, and I thought… Maybe, if you knew I could do this, you’d keep me around!” 

 

    Yurio’s sudden admission was shocking for the other men, to say the least. Yuri swore that he felt his heart start to crack. Otabek and Victor certainly felt bad for Yurio. But this didn’t make it any easier for Otabek to figure out what he should do. 

 

    Yuri spun on his heel and looked at Otabek. “You’re not going to throw him out, are you? You can’t possibly after what he just said! That would just be cruel!” 

 

    “Calm down, I’m not going to throw him out,” Otabek said, raising his hands up in surrender. Both Yuri and Yurio relaxed visibly at the assurance. “There’s no way that he can live around other people like this; he’ll never get a job or a house or anything if people think he’s weird enough to wear cat ears and a tail all the time, and if he ever tried going to a doctor, they’d probably have him locked up to run tests on him or something. I can’t send him out to live on the streets.”

 

    “But as a cat…?” Viktor asked, wondering what Otabek would do if Yurio changed back.

 

    “If you’re going to kick me out as a cat, then I won’t change back. Ever,” Yurio said, quickly and decidedly. “I want to stay here. I don’t want to be alone again. I’ll wear your dumb clothes and eat with your dumb forks and I won’t get mad when you call me Yurio, just please, let me stay here.” 

 

    Otabek didn’t know what to say. His apartment was small; he hadn’t rented it with the intention of sharing it with someone else. He wasn’t sure how independent Yurio could be or how much he would actually have to look after Yurio. Not to mention the fact that going out in public with him would be hard. And Otabek was a bit of a lone wolf. The thought of living with someone he barely knew and having to be around them 24/7 was less than appealing. There were too many cons and not enough pros. 

 

    “How am I going to explain suddenly having a new roommate to my landlord? I’ll have to buy you new clothes, teach you how to behave properly, make room for you in my  _ home.  _ I took a cat in expecting to only have it around for a few days. I did not sign up to look out for another human for the rest of my life.” 

 

    Yurio didn’t have time to react to the dismissal before Yuri interjected again. “But Beka! You won’t be taking care of him on your own! Viktor and I can help out! Maybe we can even let him stay with us sometimes; we have the room in our house, don’t we, Viktor?” 

 

    Viktor was caught off-guard by Yuri’s sudden proposal, but was not adverse to it. He had always believed himself to be a spontaneous person, and allowing Yurio to stay with them for a few days at a time every once in awhile could prove to be a lot of fun. Besides, how could he say no to Yuri when he was so insistent? Viktor knew it would break Yuri’s heart if he didn’t agree to help. That was absolutely not an option.

 

    “Of course we do! And we’d be happy to let Yurio stay with us anytime!” he exclaimed.

 

    “We’ll buy clothes for him and help teach him how to behave, too! You won’t be doing it all on your own, Beka! So you’ll let him stay, won’t you?”

 

    Otabek stared hard at Yuri, then Viktor, and finally Yurio. As many cons as there were to keeping Yurio here, there were cons to sending him away, too. As Otabek had already mentioned, it would take a miracle for Yurio to make it on his own as a human with the way that he was. Sending him out on his own would be like sending him to certain death, or a lifetime of being observed behind glass. Otabek would never forgive himself for doing something like that. Besides, if he didn’t agree to taking care of Yurio, then Yuri and Viktor would be upset with him. The thought of that was almost worse.

 

    In the end, Otabek knew he didn’t have a choice.

 

    “Fine. Yurio can stay with me.” 

 

    All three of the men grinned. Yuri started to clap his hands happily. Yurio practically vaulted over the back of the couch and dashed to Otabek’s side, then hugged him tightly and began to rub his head into Otabek’s chest.

 

    “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”

 

    Otabek stiffened and raised his hands as he looked down at Yurio. He could hear Yurio purring quite loudly. He wasn’t entirely comfortable with how affectionate Yurio was being, but for some reason, he couldn’t bring himself to push Yurio away.

 

    “If you’re going to stay here, there are going to be conditions,” Otabek told him. “You do what I ask you to, you don’t mess with my things, you don’t go outside the apartment by yourself, and you sleep on the couch, got it?” 

 

    “I got it! I’ll be good, I promise!” Yurio said, still nuzzling into Otabek’s chest. 

 

    Somehow, Otabek had a feeling that he was going to regret agreeing to this. 

 

\---

 

    Otabek had assumed that his “rules of the house” would be broken rather quickly. Yurio was stubborn, curious, and full of attitude. Otabek half expected to find that Yurio was no longer in the apartment every morning when he woke up. He more than half expected his clothes to be clawed up or his phone to be hidden somewhere that he couldn’t find it after getting into a fight with Yurio. He fully expected to receive flack for every comment that he gave Yurio on his behavior. So it surprised him when, in the end, the only rule that was broken was the rule about sleeping on the couch, and it had been broken by Otabek himself. 

 

    A new rule had been added to the list after a week, when Yurio had woken up at three in the morning and then woken Otabek up just to tell Otabek that he was bored and that there was nothing on TV for him to watch at this hour. After that, Otabek had declared that under no circumstances would Yurio ever wake him up before seven o’clock again. He hadn’t considered at the time that it would end up causing Yurio harm. 

 

    It had now been three weeks since Yurio had started living with Otabek. Once again, it was three o’clock in the morning, and once again, Yurio was awake. He was sitting on the couch with his knees pulled up to his chest, his lips trembling, and his body shaking. He was crying. It was quiet at first--he remembered how upset Otabek had been the last time that he had woken him up and didn’t want that to happen again--but there came a point where he simply could not contain his sorrow any longer, and he wailed into the night despite every thought in his head  screaming at him to keep silent. 

 

    Otabek heard it, of course. When he woke up, at first, he didn’t know what the reason was.  He wasn’t fully conscious just yet. He knew that he was hearing something unpleasant, but it was vague and blurry, and he couldn’t open his eyes. 

 

    Eventually, he recognized the sound as someone crying. As tired as he was, he forced his eyes open and sat up in bed. The door to his bedroom was closed, but he could hear the crying that had to be from outside; in the living room, most likely. The only other person in the apartment was Yurio. 

 

    Something was wrong with Yurio. 

 

    As soon as the thought registered in his head, he darted out of bed and into the living room. He threw the door of his room open so hard that it bounced off of the wall bumper and hit Otabek’s heel before he made it all the way out of the room. He winced and hissed slightly from the pain, but didn’t let it deter him from getting to the couch so that he could sit next to Yurio. 

 

    “Yurio? Are you okay? Why are you crying?” 

 

    Yurio froze, his breath catching in his throat, causing him to go silent for a moment. He lifted his face up from where it had been tucked into his arms as they rested on top of his knees and looked at Otabek, his eyes wide. He drew back further into the couch, seemingly trying to make himself as small as possible.

 

    “I-I’m sorry, I-I didn’t mean to wake you up, please don’t be mad, I-I didn’t do it on purpose…”

 

    “What?” Otabek asked, tentatively reaching his hand out to Yurio, but not touching him. “Yurio, I’m not mad. I just want to know if you’re okay.”

 

    “But you said… I’m not allowed to wake you up before seven…” Yurio whimpered. 

 

    Otabek exhaled. “I meant that you can’t wake me up for stupid things like not knowing how to work the TV. If it’s important, of course I want you to wake me up!”

 

    “S’not important…” Yurio mumbled. 

 

    “Clearly, it is,” Otabek said, finally resting his hand on top of Yurio’s head and scratching behind Yurio’s ears. He’d learned that Yurio liked to be pet there, despite having snapped at Yuri for doing it the first time they had met. Every time Otabek did it, it calmed him down, no matter how riled up he seemed to be. 

 

    “What happened?” Otabek asked softly.

 

    “S’just a bad dream…” Yurio murmured reluctantly.

 

    “Do you want to tell me about it?” Otabek asked.

 

    Yurio shook his head. 

 

    “Do you want to go back to sleep?”

 

    Yurio shook his head again. 

 

    “Then what do you want?” 

 

    “Just… keep petting me like this,” Yurio said.

 

    Otabek nodded, then shifted so that he was sitting properly on the couch with his legs dangling off the end. He stopped petting Yurio’s head for a moment and patted his lap; a silent invitation for Yurio to lay his head in it. Yurio took the invitation as soon as it was offered, lying on his back and placing his head in Otabek’s lap. Otabek placed one hand on Yurio’s chest, and Yurio started to bat it back and forth between his own hands. With his free hand, Otabek started to scratch behind Yurio’s ears again. 

 

    This continued for twenty minutes before Yurio let Otabek’s hand slip through his own and back onto his chest. Both of his hands dropped on top of Otabek’s and stayed still. Looking down, Otabek noticed that Yurio’s eyes were closed again. He had fallen back asleep--or, so it seemed. 

 

    Figuring that Yurio was calm enough and that it was safe for him to go back to bed, Otabek carefully lifted Yurio’s head up and slid out from underneath him. He set Yurio’s head back down on the couch and stood up. But as soon as Otabek was off of the couch, Yurio’s eyes shot open and he sat up, then desperately clung to Otabek’s leg, digging his fingernails into the fabric of Otabek’s pants to keep him from moving. Otabek grunted in surprise and looked down at Yurio, whose eyes were watering again.

 

    “No! Don’t leave!” he pleaded.

 

    Otabek sighed quietly. “Yurio… You were asleep five minutes ago…”

 

    “I can’t sleep if you leave…”

 

    Otabek pursed his lips. The couch was not big enough for both of them to sleep on, at least not comfortably. But Otabek wasn’t going to sacrifice his own sleep to sit on the couch with Yurio fast asleep on his lap the whole night. He also wasn’t going to abandon Yurio with how upset he seemed to be, either. The most obvious solution then was just to let Yurio sleep in Otabek’s bed with him.

 

    “Come here,” Otabek said, attempting to walk away while Yurio still clung to his leg. Unsurprisingly, he couldn’t manage to move.

 

    “Where are we going…?” Yurio asked, not leaving the couch yet.

 

    “To my room,” Otabek replied. “I want to sleep, and not on the couch. Just come sleep with me for tonight.”

 

    Yurio’s eyes widened. “But you said I wasn’t allowed to sleep in the bed with you…”

 

    “I know what I said, but I’m changing my mind tonight.”

 

    “But--”

 

    “Do you want to sleep in the bed or not? Because either way, I’m going back to sleep,” Otabek grunted.

 

    Yurio said nothing more. He let go of Otabek’s leg and scrambled off of the couch, then darted into the bedroom. With another sigh, Otabek followed him.

 

    Yurio climbed into bed and curled up under the comforter on the side of the bed that Otabek hadn’t been sleeping on. Otabek joined him promptly, pulling the comforter up to his nose and immediately closing his eyes. However, he opened them again out of surprise when he felt Yurio press up against him and nuzzle into his chest. He soon relaxed again and began to scratch behind Yurio’s ears before closing his eyes. Soon enough, the two of them fell asleep together.

 

    That was not the last time Yurio would fall asleep in Otabek’s arms at night, and the next time it happened, there were no nightmares involved.

 

\---

 

    The first time that Yurio stayed the night at Viktor and Yuri’s house, it was not because Otabek had gotten fed up with him. Rather, it was because Otabek had a single ticket to a concert for his favorite band that he had bought nearly half a year in advance. The show had been sold out for months. Otabek couldn’t take Yurio with him, and he didn’t want to leave Yurio alone for that long. Even if he had felt comfortable leaving Yurio alone for extended periods of time, Yurio’s separation anxiety made it difficult for Otabek to leave him for even an hour. So Yurio had to be left with Viktor and Yuri. 

 

    Yurio was mad at first. Mad that Otabek was dropping him off with people he still didn’t particularly like so that he could go off and do something fun without him. The anger was momentarily forgotten on the ride to Viktor and Yuri’s house, suppressed by the excitement and exhilaration that came from riding on the back of a motorcycle for the first time. However, his anger resumed as soon as Otabek shut the front door of Viktor and Yuri’s house on his way out, with Yurio still inside.

 

    Yurio spent fifteen minutes sitting with his back against the door and meowing at the top of his lungs, as if that would somehow make Otabek come back for him. Yuri tried to calm him down by kneeling beside him and scratching behind his ears, as Otabek had assured both Yuri and Viktor that he liked, but the encounter ended the same way that it had the first time Yuri had tried that. Yurio swatted at Yuri’s hand and attempted to bite his fingers.

 

    “Yurio!” Yuri exclaimed reproachfully as he pulled his hand away. “What was that for??”

 

    “I don’t want you to touch me! I want Beka!” 

 

    Viktor frowned slightly. “Yurio, it’s not like he’s never coming back. He’ll only be gone for a day and he’ll be back to pick you up tomorrow afternoon,” he assured.

 

    “Why couldn’t he just take me with him? It’s not fair! I like the music that he listens to!”

 

    “He only had one ticket, Yurio. The concert has been sold out for months, there was no way he could have taken you,” Yuri explained. 

 

    Yurio crossed his arms over his chest and folded his ears against his head. “Then he just shouldn’t have gone at all,” he hissed. 

 

    Now Yuri was frowning as well. “Yurio, that’s incredibly selfish of you to say. After everything that Beka has done for you, he deserves to do something fun for himself without you complaining about it. Beka cares about you, but his entire life does not revolve around you. He has a right to do things for himself and he shouldn’t have to give up the things that are important to him because you’re mad that you can’t do them with him. That’s not how a family acts.” 

 

    Yurio froze and his eyes widened slightly. “Beka and I are family…?” he asked. That was the first time he had ever considered it, mostly because that was also the first time that someone had ever suggested it.

 

    Viktor laughed shortly, somewhat in disbelief. “Of course you are!” he exclaimed.

 

    Yuri nodded. “Yeah, you, Beka, me, and Viktor are all family together.”

 

    Yurio stared at the ground beneath his feet. His ears stayed folded against his head, but not because he was angry at Yuri or even Otabek. He was disappointed in himself. Yuri was right; Otabek was so selfless for having taken Yurio in and deciding to care for him, giving him a home and people to call  _ family.  _ And here Yurio was, acting like he didn’t appreciate any of it. That was unacceptable. Who would ever want to be in a family with someone as selfish as Yurio?

 

    “...I’m sorry…” he murmured. 

 

    “Yurio…” Yuri said softly. 

 

    Once again, he tried to scratch Yurio behind his ears. This time, Yurio’s ears perked up just a little, and he leaned into Yuri’s touch. Yuri smiled faintly. 

 

    “It’s okay, Yurio. And it’s okay to miss Beka while he’s gone. But just know that he’ll be back soon. He can’t always be with you, but he will always come back. And so will Viktor and I. Do you understand?” 

 

    Yurio nodded, looking at Yuri. “I understand,” he said. 

 

    “Besides,” Viktor said, walking towards the two of them, “just because Beka is off having fun without us doesn’t mean we have to stay cooped up inside all day. We can go have some fun, too.”

 

    Yurio and Yuri both looked up at him. “Like what?” Yurio asked.

 

    “Oh, I don’t know, why don’t we go see a movie? Or go out for dinner? Maybe go shopping? Or all three! We’ve got time to kill, let’s just do it!”

 

    Yuri looked back at Yurio. “Does that sound like fun, Yurio?”

 

    Yurio nodded again, his ears perking all the way up as he purred in agreement, making both Viktor and Yuri laugh.

 

    “Well, come on then, let’s get going!” Yuri said. 

 

    As it turned out, while Yurio loved riding on the back of Otabek’s motorcycle, he hated being buckled up in the backseat of Viktor’s car. The seatbelt bothered him, the seat was uncomfortable, he couldn’t feel the wind on his face and in his hair, and being in such a small and enclosed space was making him claustrophobic. He meowed and whined incessantly the entire ride into the city. Viktor happened to have a CD of Otabek’s favorite band in the car, keeping it there for when Otabek came to visit him and Yuri, so Yuri put it on in hopes that the music would calm Yurio down. It didn’t. For a while, Viktor regretted that he had suggested going out in the first place.

 

    But, to Viktor and even Yuri’s surprise, Yurio was incredibly well behaved once they had finally gotten out of the car. He stayed close to Viktor and Yuri as they walked and even held Yuri’s hand most of the time. He kept his tail tucked under his slightly baggy shirt and didn’t move it much so as not to bring attention to it. During the movie, he sat and watched it quietly and enjoyed every second of it. During dinner, he ate with proper table manners just as well as anyone else. 

 

    When it came to shopping, there was a mall in the center of the city that the three of them walked to together. The stores with grungy clothes and lots of jewelry or other accessories were Yurio’s favorites, followed by the electronic toy store that sold remote-controlled cars and helicopters, as well as lava lamps and speakers that contained water in a plastic tank attached to the top and could make the water dance to the beat of whatever music was playing through the speakers. In the end, Viktor ended up buying a black t-shirt with the head of an orange tiger printed on the front of it for Yurio, as well as one of the water speakers, after Yurio had insisted that Otabek would love it.

 

    The three of them ended up making one more purchase together before the night was over, but this one had far more meaning to it than the other two. 

 

    “Come on, Yurio, we should be leaving now. The mall will be closing soon, and it’s late. We should get back home,” Viktor urged, passing by the swivel rack of cheap bracelets, chokers, and necklaces that Yurio was looking at. Yuri soon joined them from the opposite side of the store.

 

    “Viktor, wait!” Yurio called, stepping out from behind the rack and grabbing onto Viktor’s arm. “Can we buy one more thing?” 

 

    Viktor tilted his head a little, then looked down at the bags that he was already carrying. “We’ve bought quite a few things already, Yurio. We don’t want to have to send you back to Beka with too many things,” he said.

 

    “Please, Viktor? This one’s important!” Yurio pleaded.

 

    Yuri raised an eyebrow. “Important?” he asked. “What do you mean?”

 

    Yurio let go of Viktor’s arm, then dashed behind the rack again. He came back a moment later holding a cardboard flap that had four necklace chains with metal pendants shaped like cat collars at the end of them attached to it. Each collar was painted a different color. 

 

    “They come in a set. There’s four of them,” Yurio pointed out as he held the necklaces up to show Viktor. “If we get them, there’s one for each of us. We can wear them, and people we know we go together, right? That we’re a family?”

 

    A quiet noise escaped Yuri’s mouth; something between a gasp and a coo. He didn’t wait for Viktor’s answer before he took the set from Yurio and began to walk towards the cashier. Viktor and Yurio watched him as he went.

 

    “Yes,” he said decidedly, “we’re getting these.” 

 

\---

 

    Yurio’s separation anxiety got better with time. Otabek finally taught Yurio how to use the TV as well as the Xbox One, and taught him how to play most of the games that they owned. Otabek got him a cellphone as well and taught him how to call and text Viktor, Yuri, and himself. The three of them had taught Yurio to be very self-sufficient. There was a plethora of things that he could do when Otabek was away, he was learning how to take care of himself in the meantime, and he knew how to contact his family when he needed help.

 

    Not to mention, he felt far less alone when he was by himself because of the matching necklaces that he and his family wore. 

 

    In addition to all of that, Otabek had been much more inclined to respond to affection these days than he had in the beginning. Yurio now slept in the bed with him every night, curled up to him, Otabek’s hands scratching his ears or his back. When Otabek was away from the apartment for long periods of time, Yurio would cling to him when he got back. Often, they would sit on the couch together, Yurio either sitting or lying in Otabek’s lap while Otabek pets his hair and his ears. Otabek stopped seeming put-off by the actions a long time ago.

 

    But there came a day when Otabek had to leave Yurio alone for more than just a few hours. In fact, Otabek had to leave him alone overnight. An emergency had happened; Otabek’s friend Mila had been badly injured in a car accident recently and needed someone to look after her and help her manage simple tasks while she healed, but her mother’s friend was having some sort of crisis. The simplest solution seemed to be to ask Otabek to come and stay with Mila for a day while her mother sorted out things with her friend. The trouble was that Mila didn’t know about Yurio yet, and Otabek wasn’t quite ready to tell her.

 

    Viktor and Yuri were out of town. They were on vacation for their anniversary and wouldn’t be back for another week. Yurio couldn’t stay with them.

 

    Otabek didn’t want to take Yurio with him to Mila’s. Yurio knew this. But he also knew that Otabek would take him anyways if he really didn’t feel comfortable staying alone for that long. And he had considered begging for Otabek to take him along for only a minute before remembering what Yuri had said to him, and he decided that he wouldn’t be selfish. 

 

    So Otabek left without Yurio, promising that he would be back by tomorrow evening. There was food in the fridge and in the cabinets that Yurio knew how to prepare himself. He knew how to call Otabek if he needed anything. He had ways to entertain himself while Otabek was away. He would be fine. 

 

    That was before either of them knew that it was going to rain. A surprise storm rolled through the city, bringing heavy rain, bright lightning, and loud thunder with it. When the water started beating against the windows in the apartment at four in the morning, Yurio began wishing that Otabek would be home sooner than he had promised. When the thunder started crashing, Yurio wished that he had let himself be selfish just one more time. 

 

    The storm by itself would have been manageable. Yurio was anxious, but he could always turn on the lights and the TV and try to distract himself. If that failed, he could call Otabek or Viktor and Yuri and ask them to talk to him until the storm was over. But technology was not infallible, and Yurio was soon to make that discovery in a very painful way. 

 

    He crawled out of bed and walked to the wall that had the light switch on it, but when he tried to turn the lights on, it wouldn’t work. It didn’t matter how many times he flipped the switch on and off, the light just wouldn’t come. It was frightening, but Yurio tried to stay calm. He’d watched Otabek change the lightbulb in the lamp a few times. Maybe it just needed to be changed again. The lights in the living room would work, right? 

 

    But they didn’t. Neither did the ones in the kitchen, or the bathroom. The TV didn’t work. The lights in the fridge didn’t work. The clock on the microwave had stopped working. Yurio had no idea what was going on. 

 

    He ran back to the bedroom. He was thankfully that he cats could see fairly well in the dark. He needed his cellphone and he needed it now. But when he grabbed it off of the nightstand and tried to unlock it, it wouldn’t turn on. He’d forgotten to plug it in before he went to sleep. It was dead. 

 

    Now, Yurio was starting to panic. He tried to charge his phone. The cord was already plugged into the wall behind the nightstand, like it always was. But even after five minutes plugged in, the phone hadn’t charged at all. It didn’t even seem to register that it was being charged. Yurio had no way to contact Otabek, or Viktor, or Yuri.

 

    But it would be fine. Everything would be fine. The storm would pass soon and Otabek would come back. They were a family. The necklaces that Yuri had bought for the four of them proved that much. And speaking of that necklace…

 

    It was no longer on the other nightstand, even though that’s where Yurio had put it when he’d taken it off before going to sleep. Yurio searched the bed and the floor around the nightstand frantically for the necklace, but he couldn’t find it. It was gone. His last comfort object was gone, and the rain was getting heavier, and the thunder was getting louder. 

 

    Yurio wasn’t okay. 

 

    He sat on the bed and curled in on himself, pulling his knees to his chest, burying his face into them, folding his ears against his head, and wrapping his tail around himself. His breathing became heavy and shallow against his will. His eyes began to water. 

 

    It was storming.

 

    Otabek had left. He’d been gone for hours. He had said he would come back, but would he? Would he really? How could Yurio believe that?

 

    It was storming.

 

_ She  _ had said that she loved him. She’d told him what a cute kitten he was. She’d fed him, pet him, played with him, let him sleep on the pillow right beside hers. But then the dog had come along, and all of a sudden, it was like she thought that Yurio was worthless.

 

    It was storming. 

 

    Otabek had been taking care of him. Viktor and Yuri had said they were family. But Otabek had left to take care of someone else. Mila. Maybe Otabek liked her more than he liked Yurio. Maybe Yurio really was worthless. Maybe Otabek wasn’t coming back.

 

_ It’s storming. _

 

__ Tears began to stream down Yurio’s face. Before he knew it, he was full-on sobbing, wailing louder than he had been the first night Otabek had let him sleep in the bed. He should have known that he would be abandoned again. Otabek hadn’t even wanted to keep him in the first place. He couldn’t get rid of Yurio, but that didn’t mean that he couldn’t just leave.

 

_ I’m worthless. _

 

__ He’d have much more fun with Mila. Viktor and Yuri were probably there, too. They had probably forgotten all about him. They would never even think about him. He would never see them again.

 

_ Beka is never coming back. _

 

__ Yurio didn’t calm down for seven hours. He didn’t stop crying after the rain had stopped. He didn’t notice that his phone had started charging again. He didn’t notice when the lights in the living room--the switch had been left flipped up--turned back on again. He didn’t get up to eat. He couldn’t go back to sleep. All he could do was cry.

 

    At around twelve in the afternoon, the apartment’s front door opened, but Yurio didn’t even notice that. Otabek noticed the crying that was coming from the bedroom right away, though. He slammed the front door shut without meaning to and rushed to the bedroom. He sat on the bed in front of Yurio, grabbed his hands, and held them tightly.

 

    “Hey, hey, Yurio, hey, what’s going on? Why are you crying?” 

 

    Yurio gasped loudly. He jerked back as his head shot up from his knees and he pulled his hands away from Otabek’s. When he saw Otabek, his eyes widened and his mouth dropped. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He didn’t think that it was real.

 

    “Be...ka…?”

 

    Otabek lifted his hand up and carefully started to scratch behind Yurio’s ears. “Yurio, if you were feeling upset why didn’t you call me? What’s going on?”

 

    “I--my phone, it’s dead, I--”

 

    “Yurio, it’s charging on the nightstand. It isn’t dead.”

 

    “But it wouldn’t turn on, I tried to charge it and it wouldn’t charge, I--”

 

    Otabek leaned over to the nightstand and pulled Yurio’s phone off of its cord. He pressed the home button and the screen flashed on, revealing that it was fully charged. He showed it to Yurio, who could only gape at it. 

 

    It was then that he noticed the lights were on in the living room, seeing them in his peripheral vision as he stared at the screen of his phone. But how was that possible? Nothing was working last night. But it was all working now, and it had stopped raining, and Beka was here…

 

    Had it all been just another horrible nightmare? He honestly couldn’t tell. But in the end, it didn’t matter. Beka was here. That was what mattered.

 

    Yurio lunged forward and wrapped his arms around Otabek’s neck. He hugged Otabek as tightly as he could and cried against his cheek. Otabek was stunned, and he froze for a moment before he could manage to hug Yurio back. 

 

    “Yurio, please. Tell me what happened,” he whispered.

 

    “I didn’t think you were coming back! I thought you abandoned me, I thought you left and you weren’t coming back…!” 

 

    “Why would you ever think that, Yurio?” Otabek asked in disbelief.

 

    “You didn’t even  _ want  _ me in the first place, and then you left and you didn’t leave me with Viktor and Yuri, and I couldn’t call any of you, and I knew you went to go take care of someone else and I thought that you wanted to stay with her and that you would never come back and that I wasn’t… that you didn’t care about me, that you wanted to get rid of me, I thought--”

 

    Yurio was cut off when Otabek cupped his face in his hands and kissed him on the lips. Yurio mewled in surprise, his eyes growing wider. He knew that this was a form of affection that people showed to one another, usually when they were in a romantic relationship, but Otabek had never done this to him before. He didn’t know how to reciprocate. 

 

    Otabek pulled away soon, but he didn’t let go of Yurio’s face. He stared deeply into Yurio’s eyes. Yurio had never seen a more serious visage. 

 

    “Yurio, listen to me,” Otabek ordered. “Of course I care about you, Yurio, I  _ love you.  _ People grow and change. So do relationships. I wasn’t prepared to meet you or to take care of you, that’s why I didn’t want you. But I can’t imagine what my life would be like now if you weren’t in it. I want you here. I love you. And I will never,  _ ever _ abandon you.” 

 

\---

 

    It had been a year and a half since Otabek had taken Yurio in. 

 

    Sunlight was streaming into the bedroom through the cracks in the blinds on the bedroom window, but Otabek couldn’t see it. His face was pressed between Yurio’s bare shoulder blades, eyes closed, sleeping soundly. Yurio could feel Otabek’s breath on his back. It made him feel warmer than the comforter on the bed was capable of.

 

    He had to admit, one of his favorite things about being in love with Otabek was the fact that it was acceptable for people who were in love to lie around naked together on quiet Sunday mornings when they had nothing better to do. Even after all this time, wearing clothes was still something that he wished he could do without. 

 

This morning, the only thing that either of them was wearing were the matching silver rings that Otabek had bought for them last month. Yurio could feel the icy metal of Otabek’s ring pressed into the skin of abdomen as Otabek held him close. Who would have known that something so cold could be so comforting?

 

    The rings signified a promise, Otabek had said. A promise that he and Yurio would be together and that they would be in love for the rest of their lives. Yurio noticed that they were like the matching rings that he had always seen Viktor and Yuri wearing. The two of them had cried when Otabek and Yurio showed the new rings to them. 

 

    Yurio was not afraid anymore. He never felt like he was worthless. He never felt like Otabek didn’t want him, or like Otabek didn’t love him, or like he was going to be abandoned. It didn’t matter how many times Otabek went away or even for how long. Yurio knew he would always come back. 

 

    Beka loved him, and Beka would always come back. 

**Author's Note:**

> I swear to God Lady is going to be the reason that I become a regular writer for this fandom. I had so much fun writing this fic I worked on it non-stop ever since she gave me the request and I binge-watched the anime twice while writing it, once subbed and once dubbed. I also listened to like 5 different Otayuri playlists. I'm really being dragged into ship hell right now.
> 
> I find it really funny and coincidental that my first BSD and YOI fics were both really short but my second fics for both fandoms were over 10k words. Honestly the plotline Lady gave me could have easily been turned into a multichapter fic but when I take requests and commissions it's only for oneshots so 
> 
> Even so, I really hope that you enjoy this fic Lady! Thanks so much for the request! And I hope the rest of you enjoy it, too!
> 
> Also, the title came from lyrics from the song "Jim Bogart" by The Front Bottoms. It was on one of the otayuri playlists that I listened to while writing this and ironically I thought it fit this fic really well but it also made me think of my and Lady's soukoku roleplay so I pretty much had an obligation to use lyrics from it as the title LMAO


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